Number of females in herd

[Chinmandan]

Nicole is reading my mind! !

 

[brenda]

Speaking from the show table's perspective, EEK! lol

But I do agree that an average for a breeder award would be a better take on things. It's frustrating to bring 5 mutes in a class (which isn't easy for myself or other smaller ranchers) and do well, and then have someone who brought a bunch of one color get a breeder award placement above you and they averaged less than you.

Maybe there could be a separate entry form or some such thing for the show table so we wouldn't have to sort through the animals on the entry forms. It's already tought to get through it all by the time everyone wants their ribbons, etc. I don't want to give the show table more work, either, but would be happy to see an improvement in the breeder awards.

 

[jags]

Becky and I pushed for averaging color section breeder awards and less color phases in some colors but were out voted by the rest of the national board at the time. Many think it will limit the number of entries to the show which is of course is true as I would not bring more than five if that was all that was needed for an average. How many are in favor of higher entry fees to support the shows with less animals?

 

[chinchillalover0927]

i have ALL of yall beet lol out of our 10 chinchilla currently...we have 3 in breeding...LOOOOOOK OUT!!!! we have more females but NONE of them are old enough to breed

 

[brenda]

Becky and I pushed for averaging color section breeder awards and less color phases in some colors but were out voted by the rest of the national board at the time. Many think it will limit the number of entries to the show which is of course is true as I would not bring more than five if that was all that was needed for an average. How many are in favor of higher entry fees to support the shows with less animals?

This is another point I had forgotten about. The shows really do need as many animals as breeders can bring, too, to be able to make expenses and keep the shows going.

 

[Spoof]

The shows really do need as many animals as breeders can bring, too, to be able to make expenses and keep the shows going.

You could always remove the 40 animal limit again.

Maybe there could be a separate entry form or some such thing for the show table so we wouldn't have to sort through the animals on the entry forms. It's already tough to get through it all by the time everyone wants their ribbons, etc.

We're coming on 2010, doesn't anyone have this automated yet? A bit off topic, but it would be really cool to get it set up virtually so one could check in before they left home - be designated their numbers and have the paperwork partially filled out online before showing up.

Even if it was just printed off for you guys at that point - at least you wouldn't have to read my handwriting. )

 

[jags]

The entry forms for both ECBC and MCBA are online and can be filled out at home for the last few years. At one point MCBA had someone working on a show table spreadsheet but it became complicated and was never finished. I think ECBC does have a working show spreadsheet currently for their shows. At MCBA you can show up to 20 in each color section which would mean you could show 140 if you wanted to but I have never seen anyone attempt this. 50 is the most I have shown in any one show before and it was more work than I would want to do again. And the larger ranch's are not going to bring more animals if we go to using an average of 5, they will just bring what they think are their best 5 as the more you bring over that the less your average would tend to be.

 

[Riven]

At one time Holly was working on a program for the awards/points table, but I think it went by the wayside when she got sick and has never been revised.

From the shows I've been to, most of the office and awards is being run by older ranchers/breeders. Some of who's electronic capabilities are being used at full capability e-mailing and using forums, many don't use or have computers. I think if we want to move shows into the E-age then more younger people need to commit themselves to helping and being in it for the long run, which unfortunately a lot of "new breeders" you see online sell out within 2-3 years and disappear, if they last that long.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

I would love to help out more at the shows, once my husband gets things more down-pat so he can record things for me. Hopefully we're in it for the long haul, even though we're not a large breeder.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

At one point MCBA had someone working on a show table spreadsheet but it became complicated and was never finished. I think ECBC does have a working show spreadsheet currently for their shows.

Maybe I'll make this my winter break project, mom is a computer/programming wizard - i'm sure we could figure something out!

 

[brenda]

Maybe I'll make this my winter break project, mom is a computer/programming wizard - i'm sure we could figure something out!

That would be awesome! It would be nice to be able to automate the awards table. And while I spend many hours on the computer, I wouldn't know where to start with such a project.

 

[shuboyje]

I had worked with one of the MCBA's national directors a few years ago on one, and had it basically done but had a glitch somewhere that kept corrupting the database. Try as I might, I never found the problem and concluded it was a issue in the database software. Sadly I've yet to have the drive to start over from scratch with new software.

 

[mishalaa]

Becky and I pushed for averaging color section breeder awards and less color phases in some colors but were out voted by the rest of the national board at the time. Many think it will limit the number of entries to the show which is of course is true as I would not bring more than five if that was all that was needed for an average.

But that's not true... we had this discussion over the Bob Myers breeders award at York. If you average top 5 (for the section awards), you can bring as many animals as you want and not worry about the lower scoring animals bringing your average down. If you don't do top five, just make the requirement 5 chins to qualify for the award and average the score of all the entries in each section, it would be better to just bring your best five - enough to qualify for the award but not have your average lowered.

Although MCBA Nationals doesn't average at all, they just straight up add the points? In which case it would be better to have 20 animals than 5... 10 of which could take 3rd place and the other 10 could be placed under the table and you'd still rank higher than the breeder with 5 animals who all got firsts. That may make the MCBA more money, but it hurts the industry when that breeder goes off and says their animals won an MCBA sanctioned section award....

Those who have 20 animals per section to bring are probably trying more for the master breeders award than the section awards anyway, in which case they'd still need to bring 30 animals overall. I don't think registrations will be hurt that much by switching to averages, definitely not by switching to average of top 5 - just for the section awards, not the master breeders award.

Averaging top 5 may seem to skew the overall output of a breeder if they produce more crap than gold, but it's still that breeder's best versus every other breeder's best so I believe it's still a valid way to do the scoring, and it doesn't hurt registration numbers. And overall average in each section can be used in the case of a tie.

 

[shuboyje]

I think what jags are saying is big breeders in the running for those awards know their top 5, and will bring only those 5 and save the entry fee on the rest.... which is a pretty good argument against...

 

[mishalaa]

And my counter was that big breeders are after the master breeders award, and will still bring their 30 animals, regardless of the section awards.

 

[shuboyje]

I see that now, lol, and it is also a good point. I was rushing earlier cause I was about to put a batch of bread in the brick oven....

 

[mishalaa]

I was about to put a batch of bread in the brick oven....

Is that code?

 

[shuboyje]

nope, just the slew of odd hobbies that is my life, the newest of which is my wood fired brick oven I built over the summer

 

[Riven]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure how a Master Breeder works. But if you just use the points from the National show then smaller shows would have a decrease in entries.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

Can you put butter on that when it comes right out of the oven. I'll also take a side of balsamic vinegar and olive oil to dip the bread in. Thanks!

Sorry-a little off topic!